Trained in India and at Johns Hopkins
University where Dr Rani Bang and her husband, Dr Ajay Bang, studied public
health and research methodologies, the couple returned to India to set up a
health clinic in Maharashtra’s neglected Gadchiroli district, about 170 km from
Nagpur, where the Gonds are the dominant tribal group. Dr Rani Bang and her
husband started the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community
Health (SEARCH) and to practise medicine that explicitly catered to the tribal
and non-tribal poor people who live in the area. Rani Bang’s research found
that 92 per cent of women had no access to treatment for gynaecological
disorders in the absence of women doctors. In their own way, the Bangs have set
in motion a revolution that equips people, communities and administrators with
the tools to build an indigenous expression of development.

Rani Bang has run a health clinic in Gadchiroli
for over twenty years; Rupa Chinai writes on developmental journalism
with a focus on health; Sunanda Khorgade works with the women’s health
programme at SEARCH; Rahul Goswami is a policy analyst and writer, based
in Goa and Delhi.

TOI Social Impact
Awards 2015:

Thank goodness, these men &
women make a difference

TNN|Mar 9, 2015, 02.10 AM IST

Lifetime achievement: By taking neo-natal care to the doorstep of the poor,
the doctor-couple of Abhay and Rani Bang have managed to control infant
mortality in 39 villages of the Naxal affected district of Gadchiroli, where
they have worked for nearly 30 years. The Bangs’ model of home-based newborn
and child care is now being practised across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan
and in African nations such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi.

A
doctor couple who have revolutionized the delivery of healthcare to tribals in
Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district, a civil hospital in Ahmedabad which defies
stereotypes about state-run institutions, a government programme to take
science to children who live in the forgotten interiors of the country, and a
corporate's effort to bring the girl child into the warm, nurturing embrace of
education were among the path-breaking initiatives and inspiring human
endeavours and that got the nod from the high-powered Jury that met to choose
the 2014-15 winners of the Times of India Social Impact Awards.In its third edition, the SIA has become
the gold standard for socially empowering work as evidenced by its 1,100
entries.The Jury, chaired by Naresh Chandra, ex-Cabinet
secretary, governor and ambassador to the US, had the unenviable task of
choosing the most deserving from among the 40 finalists shortlisted for their
consideration, after multiple rounds of elimination. The Jury rose to the
occasion, spending the next three hours in intense discussions and even
resorting to a vote a couple of times. The eight-member Jury, which bonded over
a light vegetarian lunch before starting discussions, looked for impactful,
scalable work, especially in remote corners of the country or aimed at
vulnerable social groups like the girl child, manual scavengers and leprosy
patients.The tone for the afternoon was set by Times Group CEO Raj Jain.
Welcoming the distinguished Jury, he said, "We believe the Social Impact
Awards is the most significant professional work we do at The Times of India."